Teresa Stich-Randall enjoyed her greatest triumphs in Europe, where she was an idol of discerning audiences in Austria, Italy and France. In contrast to the forthright style of her equally celebrated countrywoman and contemporary, the warm-toned Eleanor Steber (with whom she shared a reputation for excellence in Mozart), Stich-Randall’s cooler approach exemplified the virtues of the German and Austrian lyric sopranos to whom she was often compared. On disc she is instantly recognisable, with an instrumental purity of tone and line.

Born in Connecticut in 1927, she spent a short period at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford before continuing her studies at Columbia University. Her early stage experience included two world premieres, both at Columbia: as Henrietta M. in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All (1947) and in the title role of Otto Luening’s Evangeline (1948).

The turning point of her career came when her voice was heard by Arturo Toscanini, who reportedly declared: “She is the find of the century.” The legendary Italian conductor assigned Stich-Randall the brief role of the priestess in his 1949 Aïdabroadcast with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The following year, also with Toscanini and the NBCSO, Stich-Randall sang ravishingly as Nannetta in Falstaff.

During the years of Stich-Randall’s artistic emergence, many American singers were convinced that the greatest opportunities for polishing their skills, as well as the most exciting performance opportunities, were to be found in Europe. After travelling there on a Fulbright scholarship, Stich-Randall won the Lausanne singing competition in 1951. She quickly became known on European stages: initially in Florence at the Maggio Musicale festival (her debut was the Mermaid in Oberon, 1951), then the Basle Stadttheater and finally the Vienna Staatsoper, which became an important centre of her activities (her debut there in 1952 was in Verdi’s Violetta). She was also eventually heard throughout Italy, at La Scala (Delia in Cherubini’s Ali Baba, 1963), and the Naples, Turin and Genoa opera houses. Beginning in 1952 she was embraced for performing Mozart at the Salzburg Festival, where she also appeared in the 1960 stage premiere of Frank Martin’s oratorio Mystère de la Nativité. At the festival of Aix-en-Provence (debut 1953) Stich-Randall was, in effect, “first lady” for nearly two decades, singing five Mozart heroines and numerous concerts. Those who knew her exclusively as a Mozartian were astonished when Stich-Randall took on the dramatic coloratura demands of Bellini’s Norma for a 1971 production in Trier.

She sang comparatively infrequently in American opera houses. At the Lyric Opera of Chicago she was Gilda in Rigoletto (1955, opposite Jussi Björling and Tito Gobbi) and returned for her signature roles, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte (1961) and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (1964). Those two Mozart works were her only repertoire with the Metropolitan Opera, with which she sang in New York and on tour for a total of 24 performances, from 1961 to 1966.

Recital and concert repertoire figured prominently in Stich-Randall’s career. In addition to the leading composers of German art song, she performed numerous works of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Mahler, all under important conductors. She also recorded two Verdi operas under Toscanini. In her Mozart roles there are five live performances of Don Giovanni – she also filmed the opera for Italian television in 1960. She made pioneering recordings of Handel’s Hercules and Rodelinda, Gluck’s Euridice under Sir Charles Mackerras and Weber’s A Life for the Tsar. The most famous of her recordings remains Der Rosenkavalier under Herbert von Karajan (1956), in which she sings Sophie opposite Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

Stich-Randall was the first American to be awarded the Austrian title of Kammersängerin, an honour received in 1963. She ended her stage career in 1971.

Teresa Stich-Randall, soprano, was born on December 24, 1927. She died on July 17, 2007, aged 79